Religion

The vast majority of today's Kyrgyz are Muslims of the Sunni (see
Glossary) branch, but Islam came late and fairly superficially to the
area. Kyrgyz Muslims generally practice their religion in a specific way
influenced by earlier tribal customs. The practice of Islam also differs
in the northern and southern regions of the country. Kyrgyzstan remained
a secular state after the fall of communism, which had only superficial
influence on religious practice when Kyrgyzstan was a Soviet republic.
Most of the Russian population of Kyrgyzstan is atheist or Russian
Orthodox. The Uzbeks, who make up 12.9 percent of the population, are
generally Sunni Muslims.

The Introduction of Islam

Islam was introduced to the Kyrgyz tribes between the ninth and
twelfth centuries. The most intense exposure to Islam occurred in the
seventeenth century, when the Jungars drove the Kyrgyz of the Tian Shan
region into the Fergana Valley, whose population was totally Islamic.
However, as the danger from the Jungars subsided and Kyrgyz groups
returned to their previous region, the influence of Islam became weaker.
When the Quqon Khanate conquered the territory of the Kyrgyz in the
eighteenth century, the nomadic Kyrgyz remained aloof from the official
Islamic practices of that regime. By the end of the nineteenth century,
however, most of the Kyrgyz population had been converted to at least a
superficial recognition of Islamic practice.

Tribal Religion

Alongside Islam the Kyrgyz tribes also practiced totemism, the
recognition of spiritual kinship with a particular type of animal. Under
this belief system, which predated their contact with Islam, Kyrgyz
tribes adopted reindeer, camels, snakes, owls, and bears as objects of
worship. The sun, moon, and stars also played an important religious
role. The strong dependence of the nomads on the forces of nature
reinforced such connections and fostered belief in shamanism (the power
of tribal healers and magicians with mystical connections to the spirit
world) and black magic as well. Traces of such beliefs remain in the
religious practice of many of today's Kyrgyz.

Knowledge of and interest in Islam are said to be much stronger in
the south, especially around Osh, than farther north. Religious practice
in the north is more heavily mixed with animism (belief that every
animate and inanimate object contains a spirit) and shamanist practices,
giving worship there a resemblance to Siberian religious practice.

Islam and the State

Religion has not played an especially large role in the politics of
Kyrgyzstan, although more traditional elements of society urged that the
Muslim heritage of the country be acknowledged in the preamble to the
1993 constitution. That document mandates a secular state, forbidding
the intrusion of any ideology or religion in the conduct of state
business. As in other parts of Central Asia, non-Central Asians have
been concerned about the potential of a fundamentalist Islamic
revolution that would emulate Iran and Afghanistan by bringing Islam
directly into the making of state policy, to the detriment of the
non-Islamic population. Because of sensitivity about the economic
consequences of a continued outflow of Russians, President Akayev has
taken particular pains to reassure the non-Kyrgyz that no Islamic
revolution threatens (see Ethnic Groups, this ch.). Akayev has paid
public visits to Bishkek's main Russian Orthodox church and directed 1
million rubles from the state treasury toward that faith's
church-building fund. He has also appropriated funds and other support
for a German cultural center. The state officially recognizes Orthodox
Christmas (but not Easter) as a holiday, while also noting two Muslim
feast days, Oroz ait (which ends Ramadan) and Kurban ait (June 13, the
Day of Remembrance), and Muslim New Year, which falls on the vernal
equinox.